Holiday TV Schedule Offers Its Own Fireworks : Television: Packed into the three-day lineup are such staples as sports and ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’

With Independence Day falling on a weekend for the first time since 1987, some of last year’s holiday programming won’t be returning this year.

KCOP Channel 13 is sticking to its regular Saturday morning infomercial lineup instead of airing a marathon of uncut, commercial-free movies, and ESPN won’t be televising a baseball tripleheader.

But the three-day weekend will see the first-ever expansion of KTLA Channel 5’s “Twilight Zone” marathon to two days and 37 episodes. Also included are the holiday staples of celebrations, movies and sports for the nation’s 216th birthday.

Celebrations: The tall ships, which first burned their way into contemporary consciousness during the bicentennial, return to New York Harbor for “OpSail ‘92: The Tall Ships Parade.” KCET Channel 28 presents a one-hour version at 4 p.m. Saturday while cable’s Discovery Channel airs 6 1/2 hours of coverage beginning at 5 p.m.

The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra performs in “Pops Goes the Fourth” Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on cable’s Arts & Entertainment Network.

Flutist James Galway, composer Henry Mancini and singer-actress Patti LuPone join the National Symphony Orchestra for “A Capitol Fourth 1992” Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on KCET Channel 28, 7 p.m. on KVCR Channel 24, 8 p.m. on Channel 15 KPBS and 9 p.m. on KOCE Channel 50.

John Ritter hosts “Celebrate the Spirit! Disney’s All-Star 4th of July Spectacular” Saturday at 8 p.m. on CBS (Channels 2 and 8). Billy Ray Cyrus, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Celine Dion, Kris Kross, Martina McBride and Shanice will perform on the two-hour special, which also features fireworks displays from Disneyland and Walt Disney World and a tribute to America’s Points of Light volunteers.

Macy’s conducts its 16th Fourth of July Fireworks show (Saturday at 9 p.m., KTLA, 8:30 p.m. WGN), hosted by “Today” weatherman Willard Scott, and honoring Christopher Columbus and others who have “conquered barriers, explored new worlds and expanded our horizons.”

“Ain’t That America .... A July 4th Celebration With John Mellencamp,” a concert taped earlier Saturday, will air at 11:30 p.m. on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). KLSX-FM (97.1) will broadcast the concert live from 6-7 p.m.

Marathons: KTLA Channel 5 has expanded its annual “Twilight Zone” marathon to two days, featuring 37 episodes of the classic Rod Serling-hosted series that originally ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The marathon begins at 9 a.m. today with “A Kind of Stop Watch,” and runs until 4:30 p.m., when it will be interrupted by the Angels-Toronto Blue Jays baseball game.

“Twilight Zone” will resume at 7:30 p.m. with “The After Hours” followed by two seldom-seen hour-long episodes, “The Thirty Fathom Grave” and “The Parallel.”

On Saturday, 23 episodes will air from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. including “Black Leather Jackets” (4:30 p.m.), which features current “Coach” regular Shelley Fabares as a teen-ager who falls for an alien (Lee Kinsolving), and “The Elegy” (5:30 p.m.), where three astronauts (Kevin Hagen, Jeff Morrow, Don Dubbins) land on a remote asteroid where no one moves.

A “Combat” marathon will air today from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on KDOC Channel 56. A mini-marathon of the war-drama series will air Saturday from 1-4 p.m. on the same station. Rick Jason and Vic Morrow starred in the 1962-67 ABC series.

Movies: The colorized (including red, white and blue) version of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” will air tonight at 8 and Saturday at 1 p.m. on KCAL. It will be repeated Sunday at 6 a.m., 6 and 10 p.m. on TNT. James Cagney won the Academy Award for best actor for his 1942 portrayal of vaudevillian George M. Cohan.

Another of the day’s perennials is “1776,” the 1972 musical comedy version of the crafting of the Declaration of Independence, Saturday at 5 p.m. on TNT.

USA will air the complete “Porky’s” trilogy. The original movie will be shown Saturday at 11 a.m.; the first sequel at 1 p.m. and the final installment at 3 p.m.

Sports: For the first time on an Independence Day weekend, basketball will be upstaging baseball, traditionally America’s summer game. The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team should continue its domination of the Tournament of the Americas when it plays a semifinal game tonight at 7 on TNT.

Two baseball games will begin at 4:30 p.m. today: the Angels at Toronto Blue Jays on KTLA, and the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs on ESPN, TBS and WGN. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will play at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.

SportsChannel’s 7 p.m. Dodgers-Philadelphia Phillies game is one of four Saturday telecasts. Also included is the Cubs and Braves game at 10 a.m. on CBS.

In tennis, Americans will take Centre Court for today’s Wimbledon men’s semifinals. John McEnroe will play Andre Agassi at noon on NBC, and Pete Sampras will take on Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia at 5 p.m. on HBO. Defending champion Steffi Graf of will play Monica Seles Saturday for the women’s title.